What the Carry Ons Mean To Me

 

As I've been asking the great and the good and the just plain lovely what the Carry On films mean to them, i thought it only fair that I scribble down a few lines as well. It seemed like an easy question to ask but it's not, the more I think about it, so I'm not going to think much more and just get it out!

As far as I can see, a great deal of life can be bloody hard work. Everybody has ups and downs, sometimes more downs than ups, sadly. Life is wonderful and precious but it can also be a rough, unstable ride full of unexpected stuff (both good and bad). We are all guilty of getting caught up in our own problems or the problems and issues of others. Basically life is complicated. To me, the Carry Ons are the perfect antidote to modern life. They are uncomplicated, undemanding and what you see is what you get. 

 

The Carry On films are predictable, silly, lighthearted and a cosy comfortable time capsule back to a country we don't really recognise any more and one which probably never existed in the first place. The Carry Ons are a long hot bath at the end of a crappy day; you can almost pull their warmth and charm around you against the perils of life. There is nothing quite like them around today, probably never was before and certainly hasn't been since.

 

The Carry Ons are my comfort blanket. Whether it be Sid James chasing Barbara Windsor through a muddy campsite, Kenneth Williams flaring his outrageous nostrils at Hattie Jacques at Finisham Maternity Hospital; Charles Hawtrey camping it up on a scooter, riding through the black and white streets of Ealing; Joan Sims letting out one of those raucous, infectious laughs which always went way beyond a mere acting performance or Jim Dale careering about on a hospital trolley, it doesn't really matter. It's familiar, it's fun and it's flipping fantastic. 

 

I will always love the Carry Ons and they will always be my comfort blanket against the world when it's harsh and unforgiving. You're not human if the sight of Esma Cannon, Patsy Rowlands or Peter Butterworth doesn't fill you with glee and admiration for their terrific talents. The sheer power of the Carry Ons and the actors who appeared in them continues to shine through so long after the films were made and sadly, after so many of those who made them have left us.

 

Some people are still annoyingly, stubbornly, snobbish about the Carry Ons, the most successful comedy film franchise in British film history. To them I have one very simple very low brow message:

Carry On!

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